A golden era for Indian startup founders: VC Brendan Rogers at TechSparks 2021

Entrepreneur-turned VC Brendan Rogers recalled the time he visited India for the first time in 2019 and was amazed by the happenings in the Indian startup ecosystem.

At the 12th edition of TechSparks, Asia’s largest startup-tech summit, Brendan, Co-founder, and General Partner of 2am VC, spoke about the vast potential of the Indian market.

He praised the passion, determination, and motivation of entrepreneurs in India. “The founders here are solving massive pain points for Indians,” he said.

“In Silicon Valley, there are so many seed funds, so much capital that I just want to provide value at an early stage and be a part of a growing market. It also made me go against the grain and be a part of this Indian ecosystem and start a fund. Since then, there has been such a huge uptake in more capital coming into India,” Brendan added.

2AM VC invests in the early-stage startups across industries looking at team dynamics, the founders’ background/ previous experience and how big is the problem they are solving and their approach to it.

Apart from being an investor, Brendan is also Co-founder of the California- based startup Wag Labs aimed at pet wellbeing. He was also part of many organisations as an investor, adviser, and mentor- including US-based firms Vinovest and ProGuides and South Korea’s Techstars.

With the experience of building a startup and working with investors, in Silicon Valley, Brendan always wished to work with the early-stage founders – when its two people (founders) are building from nothing. He wanted to provide value from his experience to help such founders as humanly as possible - a significant reason he decided to become a VC.

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Key trends

Brendan terms the present, a ‘golden era for Indian startups to start building businesses'.

With businesses moving to online mode during the pandemic, startups have been able to connect with multiple founders anywhere, leading to higher conversions on deals and more opportunities to invest.

“Today, we see a higher adoption rate of technologies by the end consumers. There is more accessibility to technology on macro trends, especially in Tier II and Tier III cities- with more internet penetration and cheaper data. The whole wave of technology is just solving the massive pain points,” Brendan said.

“We are seeing a larger trend of Indian startups building in India and selling products globally or to the US. There is a massive opportunity from that perspective. Startups are hiring globally, too,” he added.

Brendan concluded by asking young and growing entrepreneurs to reach out to other founders and investors for advice rather than money. “Connect with as many people as possible and keep growing,” he said.

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